Stephen, Full of the Holy Spirit
In Acts 7, Stephen delivers a speech to the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jews, about the history of God's people and the coming of Jesus. This is such an interesting interaction and not the first or the last time we see an apostle lay out the Jewish history to the "history teachers". This is important, because these leaders know the Torah inside and out, they have it memorized, they should be capable of recalling all parts of the story and their own history. So having it recited to them with an emphasis on the prophecy of the Messiah and the leaders rejection of not only Jesus but all of the prophets! Same thing Jesus told them. . .
““And you continue, so bullheaded! Calluses on your hearts, flaps on your ears! Deliberately ignoring the Holy Spirit, you’re just like your ancestors. Was there ever a prophet who didn’t get the same treatment? Your ancestors killed anyone who dared talk about the coming of the Just One. And you’ve kept up the family tradition—traitors and murderers, all of you. You had God’s Law handed to you by angels—gift-wrapped!—and you squandered it!””
Acts 7:51-53 MSG
So now that he has handed them the exact same message that Jesus gave them about the evil in their own hearts they lose their cool and stone him to death. We also get introduced to Saul, who will become a very prominent figure.
“As the rocks rained down, Stephen prayed, “Master Jesus, take my life.” Then he knelt down, praying loud enough for everyone to hear, “Master, don’t blame them for this sin”—his last words. Then he died. Saul was right there, congratulating the killers.”
Acts 7:59-60 MSG
Interesting how they just openly murder Stephen, yet had to go through a legal process to kill Jesus. Perhaps their anger is getting the best of them . . .
Genesis 31
Jacob discovers that Laban's sons were talking about him negatively behind his back, they are jealous of the wealth he has accumulated and feel as tho he has taken advantage of their father, Jacob also notices that Laban has changed his heart against him. On top of this God gives him instructions to head back to his homeland to confront his twin brother Esau.
Jacob speaks to his wives about the issue, they come into agreement and they decide to sneak away without telling Laban about the plan. It says here in the story that Rachel made a poor decision to steal her father's household gods, This is interesting as it shows us that Laban did not worship God alone, although Jacob appears to, his daughters may not be fully committed to God either if they are trying to hold onto false belief systems of their father.
After they had traveled for three days, Laban finds out and pursues after them. God spoke to Laban in a dream and warns him to be mindful of how he responds to Jacob. Laban catches up to Jacob and confronts him about his sneaking out and calls him a thief and shares his anger about not getting to say goodbye to his daughters and about the missing items from his house.
Jacob being unaware that the household gods had been stolen denies it rightfully and states that anyone found with stolen items is to be put to death. Laban then begins to search everything, unbeknownst to him his daughter was sitting on them and used her menstrual cycle as an excuse to not move from her seat.
Unable to find any proof of his accusations, Jacob gives his rebuttal. Jacob tells Laban that for the last 20 years he has served Laban faithfully for basically slave labor. He confronts Laban on his mistreatment and how he had treated him poorly over the years. Laban tries to defend himself saying that they are his daughters and his flock (sticks to the narrative of him taking advantage of Jacob.
The two end up coming to a peace treaty and they make a covenant of peace between the them, They exchange vows, make a sacrifice to God and Laban heads back home.
Genesis 32
This chapter starts out with Jacob continuing his trip back to his homeland. Along the way Jacob meets Angels of God, sets up camp there and sends his first set of messengers to his brother Esau to initiate a peaceful return. I am sure Jacob was feeling several things at once here. As he trust God's directive to return home he has hope in his heart that God will soften Esau towards him, and also he knows that the reason he had to leave in the first place was to protect himself from Esau's anger as he had swindled him of his birthright and blessing.
“The messengers came back to Jacob and said, “We talked to your brother Esau and he’s on his way to meet you. But he has four hundred men with him.””
Genesis 32:6 MSG
So he gets a response back from his Brother, and not the one he was probably hoping for. Now he has to deal with the fear of an eminent platoon in route to his location.
Jacob decides to split his crew in half so that if his brother attacks one of them the other has a chance to escape. He then prays to God expressing that this was His plan for his life and that he has been obedient to Him and asks for mercy on the situation.
Jacob decides to send his brother peace offerings, He gathers together a good amount of animals and sends them on their way to meet Esau in route. He paces out the animals into waves with the instructions to tell Esau that they are gifts from his servant Jacob (this is important because Isaac's blessing says that Esau would now be Jacobs servant)
I like to picture this from Esau's point of view before we get into his point of view, Here he is, knowing his twin brother is on his way home and he sets out to meet with him, He was pre-informed that Jacob had a large group with him and at this point we don't know if Esau is coming for vengeance, or with a large group of helping hands, Either way, as he heads out looking for his brother, waves of animals start showing up with the shepherds saying they are now all his. . . He heard he had acquired wealth, but with these generous gifts showing up. . . how much? Now Esau must have been curious.
So Jacob moves his wives and kids to a safe location and camps out to wait for his Brother. and something very interesting happens here, Jacob finds himself in a wrestling match with a stranger, How bizaar! Did this man come as an assassin from his brother? Is he just a random wanderer of the area?? They wrestle until daybreak, and it says that the man couldn't get the best of Jacob and that he deliberately threw his hip out of joint. That's a long time to wrestle so perhaps they understood death was not in this battle. The man asks Jacob to let him go and Jacob refuses until the man gives him a blessing.
“The man said, “Let me go; it’s daybreak.” Jacob said, “I’m not letting you go ’til you bless me.” The man said, “What’s your name?” He answered, “Jacob.” The man said, “But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it’s Israel (God-Wrestler); you’ve wrestled with God and you’ve come through.” Jacob asked, “And what’s your name?” The man said, “Why do you want to know my name?” And then, right then and there, he blessed him. Jacob named the place Peniel (God’s Face) because, he said, “I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!” The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip. (This is why Israelites to this day don’t eat the hip muscle; because Jacob’s hip was thrown out of joint.)”
Genesis 32:26-32 MSG
So Jacob wrestles with God and his name is changed to Israel, which means "wrestling with God" or as the message translates is "God-Wrestler". Names have very important meanings and as we watch his family grow into a nation, we also see that the name Israelite seems to stick with them, as they wrestle with God for the entire duration of their existence, even when God appears as Jesus, they still wrestle with Him.
Psalms 35
Psalm 35 is a psalm of David's, in which he pleads to God for deliverance from his enemies who are attacking him without cause. He asks God to defend him and to bring justice to those who have wronged him. David trusts in God's protection and says that he will praise God for his salvation. He also asks for God's punishment for his enemies, and for their schemes to be uncovered. The overall theme of the psalm is trust in God for deliverance and justice.
“Please get up—wake up! Tend to my case. My God, my Lord—my life is on the line. Do what you think is right, God, my God, but don’t make me pay for their good time. Don’t let them say to themselves, “Ha-ha, we got what we wanted.” Don’t let them say, “We’ve chewed him up and spit him out.” Let those who are being hilarious at my expense Be made to look ridiculous. Make them wear donkey’s ears; Pin them with the donkey’s tail, who made themselves so high and mighty!”
Psalms 35:23-26 MSG
Does it ever feel like God is asleep and not addressing the situation's in your life? The bible is a great way to help our hearts find peace, as we can hear story after story of how God is faithful and always working, even when we can't see it. As we hear David's heart cry out for justice in this Psalm we also have the whole story and know how things turned out for him. It's a beautiful story of humanity's predicament living in a fallen world and a testimony to a God who is consistent and faithful and just.
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